Ib'leam (Heb. Yibleam', ^V'b'2'^, people-u-aster ; Sept. 'Jrt/3/\aa)i<, 'le[3\adii [but some codd. occasionally omit]), a city (with suburban towns) within the natur- al precincts of Issachar, but (with Ave others) assigned to Manasseh (Josh, xvii, 11, where it is mentioned be- tween Beth-shean and Dor), but from which the Israel- ites were unable to expel the Canaanites (Judg. i, 27, where it is mentioned between Dor and Megiddo) ; ly- ing near the pass of Gur, in the vicinity of Jlegiddo, where Jehu slew Ahaziah (2 Kings ix, 27). It was as- signed as a Levitical city to the family of Kohath (1 Chron. vi, 70, where it is less correctly called Bileam, and mentioned along with Aner as lying within :\Ianas- seh) ; compare Josh, xxi, 25, where it is called Gatii- KiMiioN (apparently by error; see the Sept., and comp. 1 Chron. vi, 09). According to Schwarz {Palest, p. 148), it is the modern village Jubla, south-west (north-west) of Beth-shean, and about two English miles south of the village Kefrah ; but no map has this place, and the indications require a different position. See Gur. The site is probably represented by that of Jelameh. a small village about two and a half miles north of Jenin {Roh- insou, Researches, iii, IGl).
Ibn-Aknin, Joseph bex-Jeiiudah, called iu Ar- abic Ahdhagag Jussujf Ibn-Jalija Ibn-Shinnm Alsabti Almaghrebi, a Jewish philosoper and commentator of some note, was born at Ceuta (Arab. Sebta'), in Arabia, about IIGO. His first religious training was, at least to all outside appearances, in the Mohammedan religion, but he was at a verj- early age also taught Heljrew, and instructed in the Talmud and Hebrew Scriptures, so that, as soon as he arrived at years of maturity, he might forsake the religion forced upon him by the law of the country that gave him birth, and return to tlie faith of his forefathers. About 1185, having pre\'iously decided in favor of the Jewish religion, he tied to Alexandria, and there became a zealous disciple of the great Moses Maimonides, whose attention had been called to Ibn«
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Aknin by a scientific work of his, and by his Mahamen, which he had sent to Maimonides. Although lie re- mained with this celebrated Jewish savant only a little over a year, then removing to Aleppo to practice medi- cine, he had nevertheless endeared himself so much to him that Maimonides loved him as his own son, and ever afterwards labored to promote the interests of liis beloved disciple, and the philosophical work Moreh-Ne- hochim {Doctor perjilexorum^jVf^nchMsamomCi^s (q. v.) published in 1190, is often asserted to have had for its principal aim the removal of certain sceptical opinions which Ibn-Aknin cherished at that time. In 1192, not- withstanding the frequent counsels of ^Maimonides to the contrary, Ibn-Aknin went to Bagdad, and there founded a Kabbinic college. After the decease- of his great master he figured quite prominently at the court of tiie sultan Azzahir Ghasi of Damascus, and he deliv- ered lectures at the high schools on medicine and phi- losoph}\ He died about 1226. Besides a number of works on medicine and metaphysics, he wrote Comment tary on the Song of Sonrjs (in Arabic), now in the Bod- leian Library, Oxford (I'ococke, p. 189). He espouses the notion of 'the Talmud, that the Song of Songs is the most sacred of all the twenty-four canonical books of the O. T., and accordingly explains it allegorically as representing the relationship of God to his people Israel. " There are," he says, " three different modes of explain- ing this book : 1. The literal, which is to be found in the philologians or grammarians, e. g. Saadia, Abu Sa- charja Jahja ben-David el Fasi (Chajug), Abulwalid Ibn Ganach of Saragossa (Ibn-Ganach\ the Nagid R. Samuel Ha-Levi ben-Nagdilah, Abn-Ibrahim bcn-Ba- ran (Isaac ben-Joseph), Jehudah ben-Balaam (Ilm-Ba- laam), and Moses Ibn-Gikatilla Ha-Cohen (Gikatilla) ; 2. The allegorical, to be found in the Midrash Chasit, the Talmud, and in some of the ancient interpretations ; and, 3. The philosophical interpretation, which regards this book as referring to the active intellect [voiiq rroit]- tik6(;], here worked out for the first time, and which, though the last in point of time, is the first of all in point of merit. These three different explanations cor- respond, in reverse order, to the three diiferent natures of man, namely, to his physical, vital, and spiritual na- tures." Ibn-Aknin always gives the first and second explanations first, and then the philosophical interpre- tation. The commentary is invaluable to the history of Biblical literature and exegesis, inasmuch as aU the interpreters therein enumerated have, with the excep- tion of Saadia, hitherto not been known as commenta- tors of the Song of Songs. These expositors form an important addition to the history of interi^retation given by Ginsburg (Historical and Critical Commentary of the Song of Songs, Longman, 1857). See Griitz, Gesch. ckr Juden, vi, 354, 362 ; vii, 7, 43 ; Jost, Geschichte d. Jiiden- thums u. €. Sehien, ii, 457; iii, 11 ; Kitto, Cyclop. Bibli- cal Liter, ii, 349 sq. ; the ably wvittcn monograph of Munk, Notice sur Joseph h.-Jehnda (Favis, 1842) ; and the very elaborate article of Steinschneider, in Ersch und Gruber's A llgemtine EncyUopddie, s. v. Joseph Ibn- Aknin.
Ibn-Balaam, Jehi'dah fin Arabic Jahja Alm- Zakariu), a very distinguished Jewish philologian and commentator, was born at Seville, in Spain, about 1030. He was especially prominent as a defender of the authority of the IMassora (q. v.). He died about 1100. His works (in Hebrew) are: 1. On the Accents of the Bible, edited by Jo. Mercer {De accentibus scrip- turce jn-osaici.', Paris, 1565). Some portions of this book Heidenheim (q. v.) incorporated in his i^Qd^ ^'^'??;-?'!l= — 2. On the poetical Accents of Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms (Paris, 1556). It has recently been re- edited, with remarks of the most ancient grammarians upon these peciUiar accents, notes, and an introduction, by J. G. Polak (Amsterdam, 1858) :_3. On the denomina- tive Verbs in the Hebrew Language. The denominatives are arranged in alphabetical order, and commented upon